The present invention relates to novel and improved interconnectors that are advantageously employed in connecting an electronic circuit unit or units formed on substrates.
In recent times, interconnectors have widely been employed for the connection of circuit units in various kinds of precision electronic devices. The most widely prevailing ones have a structure formed by integrally and alternately stratifying a plurality of sheets of an electrically conductive material and a plurality of sheets of an electrically insulating material, at least one of the conductive and insulating materials being flexible and elastic, such as a rubbery elastomer, to form a block and cutting the block in the direction of stratification, so that the peripheries of the electrically conductive sheets are exposed and serve as contacts.
More particularly, the conventional interconnectors are manufactured as follows. Electrically conductive and insulating materials are each fabricated into a plurality of sheets with a certain thickness. The thus fabricated sheets of the conductive material are stacked one by one on each sheet of the insulating material to form a stratified block of the desired thickness. The block is then pressed and heated, if necessary, to form an integrated body with the stratified structure. The resultant block is then cut in the direction of the stratification to form a shape having the desired cross section.
In the rod-like interconnectors of this type, the distance between adjacent contact points is determined by the thicknesses of the electrically conductive and insulating sheets, though uncontrollably varied according to the conditions applied to the formation of the block. Therefore, it is very difficult to obtain interconnectors of the kind with a sufficiently exact distance between adjacent contact points.
Further, the interconnector of the above type is usually sandwiched by two electronic circuit units, each having a plurality of terminal points arranged on the plane, so that the corresponding terminal points on both of the circuit units are electrically connected by the contacts of the interconnector. In this arrangement of the circuit units and the interconnector, no satisfactorily good electric contact can always be obtained, because the disposition of the terminal points on the circuit units can not be perfectly even, with some recessed and others protruded, while the electrically conductive rubbery contacts have a smooth and flat surface.
It has therefore been required to ensure a satisfactorily good electric contact between the circuit units and the interconnector by applying a compressive force to the opposite surfaces of the two circuit units, so that the thickness of the interconnector formed of an elastic or flexible material is reduced by 10 to 30%. In this case, the compressive force has to be increased as the size of the circuit units used increases. Accordingly, the electronic circuit units must have a mechanical strength sufficient to withstand the increasing compressive force. Thus, it has been inevitable to lay large restrictions on the design and manufacture of electronic circuit units or device involving the conventional interconnectors.